Whale watching in Puerto Madryn

Finally I worked my way through all the pics I took on our trip to Puerto Madryn.

Tina and I went to Puerto Madryn during 5th and 10th of December to see some Southern Right Whales. This was also a good opportunity to escape from the loud and hectic city life! We started at 8pm from the Central Omnibus Station in Retiro. It is huge! They have 75 bus terminals heading to all directions. We booked a half-cama bus, that means that you can move back the seats up to 45° and you have extra space for your legs. The journey took us 1500km and 21 hours to get to Puerto Madryn (Patagonia). The bus continued all the way down to Tierra del Fuego.

We arrived in Puerto Madryn, a very small and still a almost non-touristic village, at 5pm. It was just four blocks to our hostel La Tosca, we called two days earlier. But it came as it had to come: there were no free beds for us this night. Therefore they sent us to the hostel Viajeros around the corner. It was kept simplier than La Tosca but had a garden and a parrilla as well. We had some dinner in the beach restaurant Vernardino Club De Mar with a nice view at the sea. Tina had some pizza and a bottle of beer and I had some prawns with apple, avocado and cream on some lettuces and a bottle of wine. We shared the room with a Argentinian who snored pretty loud all night through.

The next morning was hectical ‘cos we had to have our “breakfast” (dry slices of baguette with some artificial jam), check out, get some snacks for the whale-watching trip, check in at the first hostel La Tosca and to be ready being picked up for the trip in that hostel at 8:15am. Fortunately it took some time till the bus came to pick us up. So there was some time left to enjoy a coffee offered by Veronica, one of the nice ladies from the hostel.

A shuttle bus picked us and about eight other hostellers up. Silvia, the guide, and us first headed for Istmo Ameghino, a little museum and viewpoint, to get some info about the fauna by her and to take some pictures of both sides, the Golfo San José and the Golfo Nuevo, from a little tower. Half way we had to pass El Desempeño to pay the entrance fee for the national park. The Península Valdés was listed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. The peninsula is also awarded having the most beautiful bays of the world.

Next, we took off for Puerto Pirámides. There we had to slip warm rain coats over our heads (who came in summer clothes ‘cos we had 25°C) and put on life jackets before we could embark. We were about 50 people on this small boat of Hydro Sport. It went quite fast and due to the oposite direction of the waves we got quite wet. We went to Puerto Madryn very late so we hoped to still see some whales. It took some time and some miles but we were very lucky to see about six dolphins that can be found usually only in winters (of the southern hemisphere!). They accompanied us for a little while. We also had one lonely sea lion close to us. And then… finally… we saw the first Southern Right whales (Euballaena australis), a mother with her calf. Really impressive!!! These big whales swimming that close to you that you could almost touch them. We saw about eight mothers with their calf while we were out at sea. We even saw one white whale but he was too far away to get a closer look for some photos. After this unforgettable trip we had some little time to take our lunch in the only spot on the whole peninsula where you could stay over night or get some gasoline.

 Now we went off to the next destination: Punta Norte, in the very north of the peninsula. There we observed sea lions (Otaria flavescens). We hoped to see an orca catching a sea lion calf from the beach for lunch but that is almost like winning the lottery; and we didn’t win!

On the way to Punta Cantor we stopped by at Caleta Valdés to say ‘Hello’ to the Magellanic Penguins. They were all over the place. They say there are about 22.000 couples. That sounds a lot but in Punta Tombo (where we wanted to go too, but it would have taken us half a day) there are more then 180.000 penguins. It was interesting to see them standing there like frozen as they were waiting for something special to happen, or how they were lying in their digged burrows taking care of their chicks.

At Punta Cantor we saw again some sea lions and now some elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), too, as well as Neotropic cormorants. I took some time to take some photos of some lizards and a red-chested black bird. After that we headed for home. On the way we stopped a few times ‘cos the driver saw a grey fox (they are very little and cute), some guanacos (llamas), some maras (Patagonian hare) - amoung them a mother breastfeeding her two little ones - and a rhea father with his eleven chicks. Unfortunately we didn’t see any skunks nor nine-banded armatillos (just their burrows). After a 400km long trip we were dropped at our hostel. 

La Tosca was a nice hostel. We stayed in a six bed dorm. First we had one German girl and two girls and one guy from the Netherlands in our room. The next day we got six different fresh house made cakes and coffee for breakfast. This morning we got new roommates: two girls from Israel, one guy from Seoul and Stefano from Italy. We also got to know two girls and and one guy from Irland and the UK. We spend the next night with them talking about everything under the sun. The chef of the hostel really liked to cook. On time they gave everbody a piece of delicious tarta (quiche), another time a portion of flan (caramel blancmange).

The next day we rented some mountain bikes at Vernardino Club De Mar to get to Punta Loma, a sea lions bay 17km southeast of Puerto Madryn. We rode all the way along the coast. The way was at some points a bit difficult ‘cos we had to ride through prairie, that means streets (most time more likely pathes!) of gravel or even sand. Tina had to give up close to the goal. I overcame the last obstacle. I took some rest at the bay watching the sea lions sunbathing and swimming as well as the rock shags and seagulls before heading back to the beach of Puerto Madryn. We had our self prepared dinner at the beach. After dinner we walked through the low tide giving our feet the chance to cool down after this sporting day.

The last half day Tina spent the time at the beach and I enjoyed some ice cream and went along the promenade. At 1:50pm our bus left. After 21 hours we arrived again in Buenos Aires.